In the first month of the twentieth year of the Xuanhuang Calendar, Headmaster Lu Yun of the Dao Academy destroyed the Dao Tree and excised that cancerous tumor from the immortal dao. Dao Sovereign Qing Yu then reshaped the dao immortal realm and made the immortal dao whole again.

Thus fortified, the immortal dao illuminated the heavens and ushered in an era of auspicious prosperity. The entire world of immortals experienced an age of peace and glory as it’d never known before.

Headmaster of the Dao Academy and Dao Sovereign of the immortal dao further joined hands as dao partners. Their union was blessed by the world and watched over by the immortal dao.

This instance of rebuilding the immortal dao differed from when the void realm had been restored to the path of cultivation. When the missing realm had been reinstated, many immortals had faced the risk of being eliminated by the times and the immortal dao.

This time, however, though the dao fruits of those who’d reached dao immortal realm had dissolved, their cultivation levels didn’t disappear. After the remolding of the dao immortal realm, the stars were now dao fruits. The immortals would be able to reform their dao fruits if they entered the cosmos and refined the stars.

It wasn't until this moment that numerous immortals of the world finally understood what Lu Yun had once said—that if it wasn't for the dao immortals, he would’ve destroyed the Dao Tree a long time ago and rebuilt the dao immortal realm.

To take a star as one’s dao fruit!

There was no longer a need to risk one's life to travel through the realm and search for the Dao Tree. From now on, as long as one reached peerless immortal realm, they would be able to enter the boundless night sky with the blessing of the cosmic laws and search for the star that belonged to them.

The cosmos that Lu Yun created was a true sky of stars. It overlapped with the cosmos outside the world of immortals, but resided in a different plane. One could enter it only when they broke through to peerless immortal realm and comprehended the laws of the stars for that plane.

After all, true space in the outer world was too dangerous. Yin spirits and dead entities could be found everywhere, and there were many more terrifying unknown existences lurking in the depths. For a peerless immortal to venture there would be to seek death.

That was why Lu Yun had sacrificed Xing Chen and used the Cosmic Sea within his replica as a base for a brand new cosmos.

Xing Chen had become a creator the moment he transformed into his namesake. Not only could immortals from the world of immortals enter the newly created plane, but so could those struggling in various broken worlds elsewhere in the galaxy also gain access.

Most importantly, since the immortal dao traversed the entire world, galaxy, and multiverse, any living being still struggling in the ruined husks of shattered worlds were blessed with a sudden increase in cultivation speed. In fact, even the ruins themselves showed signs of revitalization under the newly completed immortal dao.

……

Spring.

Pale purple flowers carpeted Dusk Province.

With the immortal dao whole again, it showed an unusual level of activity. A large portion of beings born after this event arrived in the world as connate cultivators, no longer just mundane lifeforms.

There was much less conflict in the Dao Academy and the world at large these days; everyone was immersed in cultivation.

On this day, Lu Yun and Ashu sat by the banks of the North Sea and gazed silently at the scintillating blue stretching to the horizon. Since his replica was now the night sky, Lu Yun had fallen back to his true strength of a mere peerless immortal.

“Based on current trends… eighty years is enough.” He looked up at the sky where the World Gates were.

“There’s something I don’t understand,” Ashu asked with a smile after a moment of thought. “When you returned from the great wilderness, you were the strongest below creator realm and likely the mightiest in the world. Why didn’t you go to the World Gates then and take care of all the problems?”

“Would you have, if you’d been in my shoes?” Lu Yun remained peering in the direction of the World Gates, of where the nine celestial emperors, Yueshen, Ruyi, and Diexi were.

He’d always thought that Changxi had turned into Diexi upon her death, but now understood that while the goddess’ corpse had become a zombie and then a zombie king, the spirit inside her body was her shortsword’s. Her true spirit had reincarnated into Jing Dichen.

“Me?” Ashu blinked, then smiled. “Nope! The immortal dao needs to be baptized in the flames of conflict after its new completion, and many immortals will have perceived the situation at the World Gates. They’ll cultivate even more ferociously because of it.”

Lu Yun shook his head slightly, causing the other to cock his head in confusion.

“If I’d made a move then, I would’ve died for it,” Lu Yun sighed. “Great emperors are cursed in this era, and Xing Chen was cursed by this misfortune before he followed me to the great wilderness.

“His death was necessary. Evolving into the cosmos and supplementing the immortal dao was the best possible outcome. If I’d done anything before that, I wouldn’t have had a chance to use him the way I did.”

“A curse?! What kind of curse is it that even you can’t resolve?” Ashu’s eyes widened in shock.

Since finding himself and returning to being Ling Weiyang, he’d also recovered his memories of that era and knew full well how terrifying the Flame Emperor could be. He’d personally witnessed how Lie Shan had single handedly crushed the celestial court’s confidence and connate demon god courage.

“Me?” Lu Yun grinned. “The heck am I? Just a puny peerless immortal without my replica and a mere golden core cultivator in the era of human dao. I wasn’t even at true human realm, how can I tackle that kind of curse?”

Ashu fell silent. Who they called the Flame Emperor and Xing Chen were just Lu Yun’s replica. His true cultivation strength really did fall in the peerless immortal realm; he hadn’t even formed his true spirit yet.

“Even Hongjun has died… though Pangu and God said that he did so to become a part of this realm, would he really have gone to his death if he’d had a choice?” Lu Yun grinned. “This world is so much bigger than what I think. Death isn’t out of the question for me even at the creator level.”

He thought of Pangu whose head had been split open by his own Worldcarver, and how God had died in the immortal dao. If even creators could die, what could a little Lu Yun do?

“You’re already at extreme peerless immortal… when will you break through to dao immortal realm?” Ashu didn’t know what to say anymore.

“There’s no rush, I’ll wait until Little Yu has broken through first.” Lu Yun knew that there were countless eyes fixed on him now.

The mighty Flame Emperor of the human race had fallen from being a creator to a tiny peerless immortal, and he possessed Worldcarver and Heavenfall to boot. There were naturally a lot of people plotting against him.

If it hadn’t been for Pangu and God appearing at the last second, he’d probably be running for his life right now.

The two creators had manifested not to counter the big akasha ghost or Dao Tree, or even to give the two weapons to Lu Yun. They’d put in a showing purely to back him up. Add to that Ge Long’s sword formation protecting Dusk Province—that was why everything appeared fine on the surface.

But Lu Yun had adroitly picked up on the fact that there was a pair of enormous eyes in the void tracking his every move and gesture.